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Thousands attend to have fun, plan activities

Cooper Rankin, 6, of Wallaceburg, Ont., tries out paddle boarding with the help of Kasey Martin, a counsellor at Chatham-Kent's Special Populations summer camp during the Chatham-Kent Youth Festival, held at Tecumseh Park in Chatham.

If you want to find out about all the recreational programs Chatham-Kent has to offer, you might as well have some fun while doing it.

That has been the aim of the Chatham-Kent Youth Festival, which held it's 10th annual event in Chatham's Tecumseh Park on Saturday.

The downtown park was buzzing with activities as several inflatables, games, activities and demonstrations were available for kids to take part in or watch, including some new features such as paddle boarding in a large inflatable pool.

Rachel Pray, Chatham-Kent's co-ordinator of recreation services, said in the three years she's been part of the festival, “I've seen it grow since then and this is the biggest we've had yet.”

She noted recent festivals have attracted about 5,500 visitors and it is hoped they exceeded that on Saturday.

The festival is set up to enable families to learn about all the different recreational activities being offered by the Municipality of Chatham-Kent and other service providers in the community.

“It's a one-stop shop,” Pray said, “so the kids can be entertained by the inflatables, face painters, Mad Science, all those fun things, and then the family can go around and stop at the different vendors and really plan it out.”

Megan Robinson attended the festival with her two children Claire, 3, and Seth 1.

She likes the fact “there's so much for the kids to do regardless of what their age.”

Robinson also appreciates being able to find out about the different activities available for the kids to do.

“It's so easy, simple – one, two, three you find anything you need,” she said.